The present invention relates to a magnetic semiconductor element capable of varying optical and electric characteristics of a semiconductor by magnetostriction of a magnetic body, and a method of making the same, as well as a magneto-optical read-out head using the element.
Heretofore it is discussed in the Handbook of Magnetic Phenomena, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1986, pp. 264-265 to vary the voltage between a magnetostrictive material and a piezo-electric material by forming an interface between a magnetic body and the piezo-electric material and giving the piezo-electric material a stress by magnetostriction.
According to the prior art technique described above, the interface was formed between the magnetostrictive material and the piezo-electric material, only the voltage between the magnetostrictive material and the piezo-electric material was varied, and no attention was paid to the fact that optical characteristics of a semiconductor are varied by magnetostriction. Therefore application thereof to magneto-optical heads was impossible.
Further nothing was described on the point that the interatomic distance in the semiconductor is varied through the interface by the magnetostrictive material, and it was not an element in which electric characteristics or optical characteristics of only the semiconductor are varied by magnetostriction.